Bernardine Dohrn, activist, academic, and child advocate, is Clinical Associate Professor of the Northwestern University School of Law, and founding director of the Children and Family Justice Center. Dohrn was a national leader of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and the Weather Underground, and was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List for over a decade. Dohrn writes and lectures on war and peace, racism and justice, reconciliation and restorative justice, children in conflict with the law, human rights, torture, and family violence. Bernardine Dohrn is also a contributor to The Rag Blog.
We discuss the historical importance of SDS and Bernardine looks back on the Weather Underground and her role in the controversial group; she discusses the declining status of the American empire and the differences between the Sixties and today; and she offers a critique of the criminal justice system and the effect of incarceration on our young people, especially those of color. She is upbeat about today's youth, the possibilities for social change in America, and the mushrooming Occupy Wall Street movement.
Host and Producer: Thorne Dreyer; Engineer and Co-Producer, Tracey Schulz; Guest Engineer for this show: Allan Campbell. Rag Radio is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, a cooperatively-run, all volunteer radio station in Austin, Texas, in cooperation with The Rag Blog (theragblog.blogspot.com) and the New Journalism Project.